


The Wonders of Winter

by imgilmoregirl



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-02
Updated: 2018-10-02
Packaged: 2019-07-24 01:55:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16171229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imgilmoregirl/pseuds/imgilmoregirl
Summary: Mr. Gold finds a girl in the snow outside of his shop and feels a sudden connection with her. But maybe it's just because she has the very same blue eyes the love of his life had.





	The Wonders of Winter

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Once Upon A Time or any of the characters and storylines in the show. This is just a fanwork made for fun.
> 
> YEAH, thanks to a dream I'm finally back. I'm so sorry I haven't been writing lately, but let's see if now it will work better.

It was a cold winterly morning when he first saw her. Mr. Gold didn’t use to pay any attention to the town’s residents unless they owed him something, however he knew every single soul who lived in there, except one, he found out. Maybe it was the fact he had never seen her around that made him stop and stare or maybe he did it because he caught a brief glance of her beautiful blue eyes and remembered about someone else.

For a moment, actually, he thought he was seeing her, but then he blinked and realised that the one he was looking at, was just a bubbly teenager. Her hair was lighter than the woman who came to his mind, almost blonde but somehow a shade of brown that reminded him of his own hair colour at young age. She was a pretty little thing, even wearing those old, raggedy clothes that didn’t seem to be warm enough for the weather.

He got caught up in the moment and just stayed there in the middle of the main street looking at the girl picking red roses from the front of the grocery store – the worst flowers in town, everybody knew, you could only get the fresh and beautiful ones if you bought them from Moe French – and smiled for herself, opening the door and disappearing inside.

* * *

 

There was snow covering the whole town the day they first spoke to each other. Gold was closing the shop, feeling tired and hungry, wishing he would get home soon, when he heard someone sneezing. He looked around in the darkness of the night just to see the girl curled in a corner near him, a blanket covering her shoulders as she trembled helplessly.

His mouth fell open and his heart ached at the scene. He had never felt pity for anyone before and he certainly had never cared for desperate strangers, but in that moment all he wanted was to do anything to just help that girl.

Gold held his cane tighter, taking slow, careful steps on the snow towards the girl, who pulled the hood of her coat up, probably trying to keep the cold away and most certainly failing. He took a long, deep breath, feeling the cool air burn his nose and trying to imagine if such a skinny child could survive a night out in snow like this. The whole town could believe him to be a heartless man, but when it came to children, Gold had a secret soft spot.

He kneeled beside the girl and pulled down her hood with a gentle hand, revealing her scared blue eyes. She was startled and freezing, but all he could notice for a moment was how much the colour of her irises met the colour of someone else’s, even in the darkness. If he wasn’t aware that if he kept staring at her for another five seconds, she would probably run away, he would have lost himself to his musings, however he needed to focus on the girl, so that’s what he did.

“What are you doing all alone here, child?” Mr. Gold inquired. “Your parents must be concerned and you will get a cold if you stay here for any longer.”

The girl tightened her lips and looked down at her hands. They were pale and the tips of her fingers were getting purple.

“I don’t have any family,” she answered with a shrug. “I live in the orphanage, but there is a guy in there who has been bothering me, so I ran away.”

“And you were thinking it was a good idea to sleep here?” The pawnbroker questioned and she shrunk. “You were going to be dead by the morning.”

“I know, but nobody would notice.”

There it was, the ache in his heart again, making a lump appear in his throat. Gold didn’t know why, but her words made him want to cry. He knew how it felt to be lonely, how it felt to feel like you didn’t matter and he surely didn’t want such a young soul to feel like this.

“Tell me, child,” he slowly began. “What is your name?”

“Tilly,” the girl said. “My name is Tilly Weaver.”

“Nice to meet you, Tilly. I’m Mr. Gold.”

“I know.”

In her lips, a tiny little smile had appeared. It was sweet and innocent and it brought the remembrance of a young woman to his mind, one whose smile looked really alike Tilly’s and one who would have helped this girl without thinking twice. One for who his heart still raced, even at mere memories.

He slid his hand inside his overcoat’s pocket and picked up the keys he had just pulled down there. Gold took one of Tilly’s cold hand’s in his own and placed the keys on her palm, closing her fingers carefully around it.

“There is a cot in the back of my shop and a warm blanket in the second cabinet, right beside an old typewriter,” the pawnbroker told her. “You can use them.”

Tilly blinked in surprise.

“Will you let me sleep in your shop?”

“Yes.”

“For free?”

He thought about it for a second. Everybody in this town knew he never did favours to anyone, everything was about a deal and if one single person knew he had been showing himself a softie he might ruin his beloved reputation.

“I was in need of help with cleaning,” Gold said. “You can come and dust the place for me after school in exchange for a shelter.”

Without waiting for an answer, he pulled himself up to his feet with some effort and the help of his came, grimacing in pain as he walked towards his car, leaving the orphan girl with a copy of his shop keys. Gold was about to get himself into the front seat when he saw the lights glowing inside the shop and heard a muffled thank you coming from the backdoor.

* * *

 

It had been a week ever since he learned she loved orange marmalade sandwiches and started bringing them for her everyday as a treat. She would smile and eat like it was her very last meal, then she would clean, singing as cheerfully as his last employee and he would give her a few coins for her work, telling her she should buy a chocolate or some other candies before she went to school.

He was surprised to find out, during a very windy Wednesday that she had been saving money, because he found her counting the coins he gave her and pulling them inside a peanut butter jar. It intrigued him and, as much as Gold used to avoid being nosey, he walked inside the backroom with a question shinning in his eyes, however, he didn’t need to ask anything, as Tilly spoke for herself.

“I finally have enough,” she said, happily, lifting the jar up for him to see. “I will finally buy a whole bouquet of red roses from Game of Thorns.”

A half smile took Gold’s lips.

“You really like flowers.”

“Oh, they are not for me,” Tilly answered. “I always visit a woman in the hospital who has been in coma for years. She has no one like me and I thought she would like to have roses on her beside to make her world a little bit lighter.”

“Well, that’s very nice of you.”

She opened her old backpack and deposited the jar inside, jumping up from the cot and pressing a kiss to his cheek before rushing out of the shop, making her way to the school and then probably to the hospital. Gold however, stood there, awestruck, knowing it was the first time in many, many years that he felt like he cared for someone and someone cared for him.

* * *

 

The snow had finally melted when he met a woman named Emma and the morning light shinned bright through large windows when he first visited the hospital. It was Tilly’s solemn routine to visit this Jane Doe, but he had never questioned her about it and he had never even been curious until he woke up and realised he was not only Mr. Gold, the pawnbroker, but Rumplestiltskin, the Dark One.

He walks through the corridors like he is summer storm, fast and dangerous, so nobody bothers him. The memories are coming faster and faster to his mind, just like they did the whole night. All of his deals, the loss of his beloved son, his one and only goal to find him and them… Her.

She came into his life unexpectedly. Yes, he had wanted her from first sight, because she was beautiful, brave and certainly interesting but he had never meant to fall in love with her, but he did and he denied it and he made many, many mistakes. He had broken her, he knew it very well, he had thrown her out of his home right after taking everything she had offered him with love and honesty only, because he was a coward.

Deep down, Rumplestiltskin knew the truth and he didn’t even need a real confirmation, however there was a part of his brain that refused to accept it until it had a proof, which was why he pushed open the glass door of the room in which Tilly was, sat beside the woman he loved.

His breath was caught on his throat and when the girl looked up at him, he felt the tears coming. Those were Belle’s eyes, now he was sure. He had no idea of what had happened or what brought them to the actual situation, but he knew that Tilly wasn’t just an ordinary girl who had ended up on his door for no reason. She has his, the daughter conceived in that one and only night.

“Mr. Gold,” the girl – his child – started. “Are you ok?”

He didn’t answer. All he did was to hug her as tight as he could as he looked down at Belle and made her the solemn promise of bringing their family together and waking her.


End file.
